The Los Angeles Times has published my oped on the Kevin Shelley mess and what California can do to fix it. A snippet:

California’s Constitution should be revised so that the chief elections officer (who may or may not be the secretary of state) is appointed to the position for a fixed term of, say, 10 years. He or she should be nominated by the governor and approved by a 75% majority of the Legislature. Such a supermajority requirement would ensure that only a consensus candidate who could achieve broad support from both parties would be chosen for the office. The Constitution should also guarantee some independence for the budget of the office and provide that the chief elections officer can be removed only through a difficult impeachment procedure.
In addition, the Legislature should pass tough conflict-of- interest provisions. Shelley’s predecessor, Republican Bill Jones, generally did a good job as secretary of state. But almost immediately after leaving office he went to work as a paid consultant for a manufacturer that was selling electronic voting machines to California counties.
In the short term, the governor and Legislature should appoint a competent, neutral administrator (such as an experienced county registrar of voters) to the position. Longer term, the special election that the governor is expected to call for June provides the perfect opportunity to make these changes.

The Times also offers its own editorial on the topic, Clone Bill Jones and the Sacramento Bee reports that the California Legislature might abandon its probe of Shelley’s alleged misconduct. That would be a big mistake, if we are to avoid such problems in the future.